According to Word Tracker the most popular keywordphrase connected to Tokyo at the moment is Tokyo Drift, a movie apparently about fast cars and cute, attractive girls. One thing I like about living in Tokyo is that I get to see fast cars and cute girls on a daily basis (looking is about all I can do as I can't afford either of them.) More importantly, living in Tokyo is a good way to witness the impact of speed... speed in the Paul Virilio sense, the complete domination of Man by the Machine. Speed has shattered the geography and social landscape of Tokyo the same way that Word Tracker has warped the long tail of the blogosphere... if you want a glimpse, drive the Rainbow Bridge past Odaiba as fast as you can one moonlit night. Alternatively, you could watch Tokyo Drift. This is the story of speed, vectors, and the cult of the machine.

As Wikipedia has reported: "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a 2006 motion picture directed by Justin Lin and the 3rd installment of The Fast and The Furious franchise. The film features a new cast of characters and a different setting (Tokyo, Japan) from the previous two films. The movie was shot in Tokyo and in a Japanese American ethnic enclave north of downtown Los Angeles, the latter often covered with props and lights to create the illusion of the Tokyo style.

"In the latest version of Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift we meet Sean (Lucas Black), your average troubled teen. Hobbies- racing cars and picking fights. After getting himself into more trouble than he or his mother can get him out of, he is sent to live with his father stationed in Tokyo, Japan.

"Here Sean meets new friends and learns a new way to race, at the same time gaining a few enemies. Testing his patience and skill, he learns courage and gains respect from his friends and his Father..."

Anyway, you all know the story -- and this website is not intended to be a tribute to the film as such. Rather, it is a tribute to speed, and drifting, and some of the hot cars (and chicks) that can be found on the streets of Tokyo. One thing is for sure, there are sure a lot of nice looking cars and girls in this city. I am starting to get to first base finally with the babes -- the cars are a different matter.

Pandarryking says: "Yes, it is surely a good movie, especially for the people who like car, it is really amazing. For the gamers who play Need For Speed series, the latest version that will release on 3/11/07 - Need For Speed : Carbon , I think EA is getting the idea from this movie.

"And the music part, the theme song ''Tokyo Drift'' is nice too, and 1 of Malaysia radio station - Hitz.fm is modify the song into ''Not So Furious'' and use to satire the ''Mat Rempit''(Illegal Motorcycle Race) activity. I believe Malaysian & Singaporean will understand what are they singing, because the lyrics is mix by Malay Language & English.

"I upload the song and be ready to laugh on it."

As you might have worked out already, Akihabara is the otaku capital of Japan, and for lovers of anime and manga culture, this is Mecca. The funny thing is that while in Japan otaku are looked down upon and stigmatized as pathetic, perhaps even dangerous losers, otaku culture is fast becoming the coolest thing around in Europe and North America. I have got a buddy in the publishing industry in Australia, Stuart Ridley, who started a magazine called Gaijin! to promote otaku culture Down Under. In Australia, Ridley told me, the kind of people who go to underground nightclubs and read THE FACE and spend $100 on fashionable haircuts are also the kind of people who dig otaku. To them, Tokyo and Akihabara are buzzwords for futuristic street style cool. Ridley himself visited Tokyo a few years back and while I didn't meet him, I am sure he made a pilgrimage to Akihabara.

Walk along Chuo Dori Street on any Sunday afternoon and you will see the maids, usually surrounded by a paparazzi swarm of otaku geeks, hurriedly taking photos on their cellphones. Some of them are dressed like classic maids, others are clad in skimpy school uniforms or costumes from some anime epic. All of them know how to strike a pose, and work the otaku into a fetishic frenzy. Often its more fun watching the otaku dash from maid to maid, faces grinning like little kids set loose in a candy store, than it is to stare at the admitedly cute maids. This is the human zoo, Tokyo style. In a way it is kind of the reverse of the scene going on at the same time over in Harajuku. At Harajuku it is (mostly) teenage girls competing to express their creativity to the ultimate extreme -- and beyond. At Akihabara deep fantasies get expressed in a more passive, but still interesting way: here it is (mostly) guys coming out of their bedrooms to gawk at girls dressed like their favorite comic book stars. As well as posing in pictures, the maids invite otaku to the many waiting maid cafes for more intimate entertainment.

As Rezz at SkyLine Australia wrote recently: "If you're looking forward seeing some drift spots, when you heading up Tokyo area, you can try go to Urayasu (・ｽY・ｽ・ｽ) area which is near Tokyo Disneyland, every Thrusday or Friday you may able to find many drifters (・ｽ・ｽY), of course they wont drift near the Disneyland area, they will first meet at some convineient store, like 7-11 or Lawson nearby, then they'll drive to some factory area.... Nowadays police take drift very seroiusly, it may be hard to see any, it really depends your luck.

"If you also interest top speed (・ｽﾅ搾ｿｽ・ｽ・ｽ)・ｽ@, or if you have mates around Chiba area, you can go to AQUA line in Chiba area, it's actually a long fast express tunnel which connects Chiba Kisaradu ・ｽi・ｽﾘ更・ｽﾃ）, Yokohama (・ｽ・ｽ・ｽl) and・ｽ@Kanagawa・ｽ@(・ｽ_・ｽﾞ川県), this AQUA line is a good run, but each run will cost you 4000yen in tolls, so people will just do a U turn in the parking area and do a few high speed runs... since this express line very expensive, not many normal commuters will use it, so Friday night you might able to see many zeroyon ・ｽ[・ｽ・ｽ・ｽ・ｽ・ｽ・ｽ (0 - 400m drags), a few years ago Wangan Kousoku ・ｽp・ｽﾝ搾ｿｽ・ｽ・ｽ was the best place , but nowadays there are too many accidents, so it might be hard to see any runs on the Kousoku ・ｽ・ｽ・ｽ・ｽ・ｽB・ｽB・ｽB・ｽBthere might be a bigger drifting scene around Osaka..."

As Vallient at GaijinPot wrote: "Almost all of the movie was shot in Los Angeles, they only did background shots in Tokyo.

"This movie was better then the second, and about equal to the first. van Diesel makes a cameo in the end of this the third movie, so if your a fan of his you might want to see it although its only a minute of screen time for him.

"I honestly thought the movie was more about the culture of Japan then about raceing and the cars. I can imagine alot of guys seeing this movie and thinking that japanese girls are hot and easy. My nephew who is now 16 saw it and is now got yellow fever and emailed me hust today to see if he can come visit me since hes on summer vacation now. I told him Japan isnt like the movies and I'd have to speak to his mom.

"Personally I didnt find the girls in the movie very sexy, fasionable and well accessorized maybe but not sexy. The only thing I thought that was realistic was there obsession for cell phones..."